FAQ

As of 1 January 2017 every wage-earner Turkish citizen under 45 years of age will be automatically enrolled in a pension plan arranged by employers as per the Law No. 6740, “Amending the Law on Individual Pension Savings and Investment System,” which has been issued in Official Gazette dated 25 August 2016, and will enter into force on 1 January 2017.

That depends whether the internship is compulsory or optional. There is no obligation to pay for the University students who are subject to compulsory internship. If employer chooses to pay, the payment is subject to income and stamp tax.

In case of employing intern students, who are receiving vocational and technical training in the higher education institutions, employer must pay; at least 30% of monthly net minimum wage in the workplaces that have twenty or more personnel, and at least 15% of monthly net minimum wage in the workplace that have less than twenty personnel. There is no tax deduction for these wages.

Optional trainees must be paid at least minimum wage, just like the regular employees are paid.

The social insurance premiums of interns who are subject to compulsory internship will be paid by their schools.

Ramadan; the month of fasting, starts on 6th of June this year and continues until 5th of July.

Turkish Labor Law 4857 has no special arrangements or provisions for Ramadan and as per the Turkish Constitution and Article 5 of Labor Law there can be no discrimination amongst people or employees based on religion and sect. So there cannot be any discrimination between fasting and non-fasting employees.

However as many employees are not going to be having lunch during the daytime, some companies stop giving meal in their premises and chose to provide their fasting personnel with what can be called "Ramadan Packets" which consist of basic food items. Paying cash instead of supplying foodstuff is another alternative.

On the other hand non-fasting personnel may be provided with meal vouchers or tickets to have lunch out of the premises or just be paid in cash.

All these allowances cash or in kind are deemed as a part of the wage, but they vary with regard to income tax and social security premium liability.

Employee's wage, pertaining to the period of annual leave, should be paid in advance or by raising an advance payment prior to commencement of the leave.

The annual leave remuneration of employees who are not paid daily, monthly or weekly but who are remunerated according to an indefinite period of time or amount of money, such as a piece-rate, commission, profit sharing or percentage, must be calculated on their average daily earnings by dividing the total wages earned during the previous year by the number of days actually worked during that year.

For employees working on a percentage basis, remuneration for annual leave must be paid by the employer in addition to any amount of money derived from current percentage earnings.

If the employee has been granted a raise in pay within the previous year, the annual leave remuneration shall be computed by dividing the total wages earned between the date of the month in which the employee uses his leave and the date when his pay was raised by the number of days worked within that

Refugees, conditional refugees, subsidiary protection, applicants of international protection, and over 2 million Syrians which are "under temporary protection".

All of these terms and definitions in the asylum system of Turkey are causing a conceptual confusion, and are inconsistent with those of international conventions and laws.

Turkey, a signatory to the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol with geographical-limitation, faced with an overwhelming flow of asylum seekers during the last five years and the "Law on Foreigners and International Protection, No. 6458" that came into effect in April 2014 to provide a holistic approach to the issue.

However, as stated above the law includes many types of statutes, and asylum seekers depending upon their status are treated differently with respect to their working and employment conditions. And main distinction between these people is that, some are "under international protection" and some (mainly Syrians) are "under temporary protection".

As is known the leaver’s deregistration should be notified to SGK / SSI / Social Security Institution and İŞKUR / Turkish Employment Agency within the certain period by filling the forms online in the related websites.

For ensuring the consistency in application, SSI determined a list of two digits codes that contains the reasons for termination of employment. Please bear in mind that, as the reason of termination has a big importance and may have serious consequences both for the employee and employer, using these codes in the process of deregistration is vital.